Mascot Monday is back and we are racing to make it in under the wire. Fortunately for use, we will be looking at the University of Texas at San Antonio’s Rowdy the Roadrunner. In celebration of instituting their very first year of football, I’m gonna do a fly over on Rowdy and see if he can stack up well against veteran mascots right out of the gate. I’m going to toss in a preview of some of their opponents for the next couple of years as well as talk about the legendary coach that’s taking his shot at building a program from the ground up.

Mascot Monday rolls on to another week and you may be wondering why I’m revisiting another mascot. Welp, you are wrong there as I am not talking about Kansas State’s Willie the Wildcat but Northwestern’s Willie the Wildcat. They have the same name, the same color, and almost the same history. It’s going to be hard to avoid comparisons but I”m going to do my best. I mean one is from the cold winds of Chicago and the other is from the Little Apple of Manhattan, Kansas. See there we go, let’s see what else we find.

Welp, we did Willie the Wildcat to kick off last year, Big Jay and Baby Jay toward the end of last season, and now we have the last of the big Kansas City area school mascots in Truman the Tiger. Recently named after a famed president, not Taft, and hailing from the University of Missouri, Truman’s past comes from a long line of feral felines. Today we’ll find out what makes the furry guy tick and also offer some improvements to his already super sized personna. So kick back, relax, and come with us on our second year of Mascot Monday with Truman the Tiger.

Ah, yes the Sunflower Showdown. I was at the game last year and it was a blowout. I’m heading to the game this year and it’s a homecoming in a way. I make no bones about being a K-Stater and while I do my best to be objective, the Purple Pride eeks out ahead. So when I go to the game today, I will be reliving the days of past when I was a student. I will also be going back to the source and inspiration for this website.

Media days are over and the flood gates have opened up for college football news. Practices start this week and the preview magazines are all over the place. We are so close and the Crib Sheet has made it so far. We’re not sure yet if we’ll continue this in the regular season or not, but for the next couple of weeks prepare to get bombarded with news from all sides. Bring a snorkle, here is this week’s Crib Sheet:

Colorado coach Dan Hawkins backtracked from the 10 win guarantee and stated that it was a challenge to his team to win 10 games. There is no way he is going to achieve that goal. The way the North is looking in the Big 12 and the toughness blowing up from South, it would be hard pressed for this Buffalo team to compete.

Sergio Kindle from Texas made a surprise appearance at the media days. Awhile ago he crashed a car into an apartment complex apparently while texting. We think he was drunk. He got away and Mack Brown will make sure he leaves the phone at home from now on.

Big 10 media days happened as well. The big surprise is they might adjust the schedule to pad some games at the end of the season. They need that to actually compete in the big bowls that happen around the start of the year. The not so big surprise is that Joe Pa is not going to retire soon.

Steven Sipple seems to be the only one crying about the new Cowboys Stadium in Texas. He makes a good point but the massive complex might help draw more money for the league. Yes, it would continue the South slant perception in the Big 12, but that’s a perception and not a reality.

Hawaii coach Greg McMakin apologized about a remark he made at the WAC media days when the Rainbow Warriors played The Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the Hawaii Bowl. He essentially said the Fighting Irish danced like they were little things that the British call cigarettes. Yeah, he probably shouldn’t have said it in a press conference. But it’s a little ridiculous that he is now suspended for 30 days with no pay.

Looks like Jake Trotter polled 29 of the 38 football players at the Big 12 media days and found that Ralphie is the most favorite mascot, followed by this week’s Mascot Monday entrant Bevo. We here at the KCCGD think that maybe the football players polled should take a better look at some of the local talent (Willie the Wildcat, Truman, Big Jay, and Baby Jay) before they plunk down their choice.

Looks like Oklahoma will be playing Army for a 2 game series in 2018. No, they won’t be playing at Yankee Stadium, it will be at each team’s home field. We’re gonna go out on a limb and say that Army will be competitive by then, either from the Black Knights rising or the Sooners dropping. Hopefully they’ll keep those cool camo uniforms for the game.

Welcome to the first post of the offseason for the KCCGD Crew! We have a couple of ideas floating around and one of them bubbled up to reviewing the wacky tradition of mascots in college football. We’ll be talking about a new mascot every Monday in the offseason, pointing out likes and dislikes as well as funky things we found out about them. The inaugural post is, seeing as I’m a K-Stater, Willie the Wildcat.